


you can sing about me

by returnsandreturns



Category: Disney RPF, Glee, Hip Hop RPF, Taylor Swift (Musician), The Academy Is...
Genre: Agender Character, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Glee AU, M/M, Other, glee club au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-03-13 09:51:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3377144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/returnsandreturns/pseuds/returnsandreturns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taylor just wants to stop Mr. Scheuster from rapping, Angel has a thing for willowy blondes, and Mike Carden knows stuff about gender. A Glee AU that never needed to exist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you can sing about me

**Author's Note:**

> A) I don't know where this came from.  
> B) Remember when Mike Carden/Kevin Jonas became a thing? Man, I love the Internet.  
> C) Seriously, I have no idea.  
> D) Definitely look up what Angel Haze did with "Same Love" in real life because they are amazing.  
> E) Two characters use female pronouns/phrasings for an agender person for a few lines before they know that the character is agender.

It all starts when Mr. Scheuster raps “Same Love,” which is the worst thing that Mr. Scheuster has ever done to them. It’s at the top of a long list, and Taylor manages to convince him that they should invite a guest in to rap instead—for sectionals. It’s not so much for sectionals as it is for their sanity, but they just can’t have a repeat of that horrifying Kanye cover they did.

She gives Kevin wide eyes through the whole thing and, as Mr. Scheuster finishes and sets his guitar down with a soft smile like he’s anticipating his applause, stands up and says, “Hey, Kendrick Lamar!” 

“Excuse me?” Mr. Scheuster says, but then Kevin nods and adds, helpfully: “Kendrick Lamar exists. And does. . .rap things.” 

“Sponsors can’t perform at sectionals, you know,” Taylor says. 

She thinks there should probably be a Macklemore ban, too, but Macklemore appeals to Mr. Scheuster’s delicate sensibilities and tendency to do things like scrawl the word TOLERANCE on a white board and except them to fall at his feet. He definitely looks hurt when she says this but eventually concedes that it’s not a bad idea and tasks Taylor with finding a volunteer. 

She’s more than happy to help.

*

"So, I need you to come rap with the Glee Club," Taylor says, cornering Kendrick in the cafeteria the next day. He looks at her for a long moment, eyebrows raised. 

"Are you fucking with me?" he asks. 

Gravely, she holds out her phone to show him the video of Mr. Scheuster rapping yesterday. She takes a little too much joy in watching Kendrick's face slowly descend into misery until finally he pushes the phone away, nodding. 

"Okay, I see the issue,” he says, “but I don’t think I’m the guy to help you.”

“I’ve seen you rap, on the steps after school,” Taylor says. “You’re amazing.”

“I am amazing,” he agrees, half-smiling,“but you want Haze for this, if you can get them. They’ll rip that song in half.” 

“Haze?” Taylor asks. Kendrick nods and takes her phone again, tapping a number into it before handing it back. The name _angel haze xx_ is in her contacts now. “Angel Haze.” 

“Look up their mix on Soundcloud.” 

Taylor goes back to her table to do this, putting in her earbuds and ignoring the rest of the club around her. She doesn’t even hear the bell ring until Kevin shoves her gently, tugging one of the earbuds out. 

“Time to go,” he says. 

“Skip class with me,” she replies, looking up at him with wide eyes, “and listen to this rap mixtape.” 

Kevin thinks for a moment.

“Okay,” he says. 

* 

“This girl goes to our school?” Kevin asks, an hour later, where they’re hiding behind the dumpsters where Pete Wentz’s crowd normally comes out to smoke during gym. It’s just them and some other dude right now, who’s gone through three cigarettes and keeps staring at Kevin. 

“Apparently,” Taylor says. “Is your mind not blown?” 

“Oh, it’s blown,” Kevin says, but he looks somewhat distracted by the guy who’s still staring at him. He shuffles a little closer to Taylor, leans in to hiss. “Do you think he wants to kill me?” 

“I think he wants to do something else to you,” Taylor whispers back, and Kevin’s eyes widen. He takes a moment to look the guy over, definitely making significant eye contact. He’s not bad looking, messy brown hair and ripped jeans and a nice face. Taylor thinks that maybe he hangs out with Bill Beckett. 

Kevin moves away from Taylor slightly to lean over and ask, “Hey, do you happen to have a bluetooth speaker?” 

The guy blinks at him.

“Uh, yeah,” he says, eventually. “Why?” 

“Do you want to listen to this mixtape with us?” Kevin asks. The guy looks like he’s taking a moment to consider it but then he’s digging into his messenger bag to pull out a rough looking speaker. It’s got a Bad Brains sticker on the back of it. He moves to sit next to Kevin and puts the speaker on the ground in front of them.

“I’m Kevin,” Kevin says. 

“Mike,” the guy replies. “I, uh. I know who you are.” 

“You saw the Glee Christmas concert,” Taylor supplies, and Kevin groans. Everyone saw the concert because the principal scheduled it as an assembly. Kevin had a starring role in that concert, singing a pretty exceptional version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” with Brendon Urie. 

Mr. Scheuster had let them have pretty much free reign over the concert because he was having relationship drama with the guidance counselor or something so Taylor and Karlie and Ella turned the whole thing into a PSA about dating abuse and sexual assault. It’s not her fault that the first time Kevin got a lead role in something involved him playing a date rapist, except for how it kind of is. It was definitely for the greater good, though. 

“I did,” Mike says. “I did see that.”

“I’m not a date rapist,” Kevin says. 

“I didn’t think you were,” Mike replies, “but it’s good to know for sure.” 

They smile at each other in a way that makes Taylor think she should probably exit stage left, but then Kevin blushes and grabs Taylor’s phone to start the music. 

As soon as it starts, Mike says, “Oh, yeah, Angel.” 

“Oh my god, do you know her?” Taylor asks.

“Okay, wrong pronoun,” Mike says. “But, yeah, everybody knows Angel. They’re basically a god. I can’t believe you haven’t heard this mix until now.” 

“They?” Taylor asks. 

“Uh, yeah.” Mike glances between them for a moment before he continues, “Okay, wow, isn’t everybody queer in Glee? So, gender exists on, like, a spectrum, right? Some people identify as men and women and some people identify as both and some people identify as nothing. Because gender’s—fucking confining sometimes, right?”

“Oh,” Taylor says. She thinks she needs to do some googling. “And Angel?” 

“Agender,” Mike supplies. “None of the above.” 

“So, they and them,” Taylor repeats. “Okay.”

“Tell me more about gender,” Kevin says, and Mike laughs. He’s got a hand resting on Kevin’s knee when Taylor decides to leave them to their own devices, heading inside. On her way to the computer lab, she texts Angel: _hey, this is tay swift. got your number from kendrick. wanted to know if you might want to collab on something cool for glee._

Ten minutes later, while she’s knee deep in a Wikipedia page about gender identities, she gets a text back that says: _depends. into cool, not so much glee._

Taylor grins at her phone. 

_promise they’re not mutually exclusive_ , she replies. 

There’s a pause where she feels a little too shaky and excited—it was a really freaking good mixtape—and then she gets: _meet me on the steps after last bell_ and _fuckin lamar_. 

Taylor makes an undignified squeaking noise and very firmly does not text back her first thought, which is: _!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ Instead, she replies: _will do_ and, as an afterthought, a smiley emoticon.

This is going to be amazing.

They’re totally going to win at Sectionals.

*

Taylor goes to her last class, doodling in her notebook instead of listening to a lecture on _The Illiad_ , then leaves a few minutes early under the pretense of going to the bathroom. She’s the first one outside, and she boosts herself up onto one of the rails to sit and wait, listening to Angel’s mixtape again. The beats are insane. Taylor wants to sample them for her own songs but it might be too soon to ask about that, considering they haven’t even met yet. 

She’s nodding along with her eyes closed when someone taps her on the shoulder and she jumps, surprised. She would have probably fallen backwards onto the grass if someone didn’t grab her arm to keep her steady. 

“Are you Tay?” 

Taylor looks at Angel and smiles, hopping down and putting out a hand to shake. 

“Yes! Taylor,” she says. “You’re an angel—I mean, you’re Angel. Wow.” 

Angel’s pretty. Like, really pretty. They’re looking up at Taylor with an amused smile on their face, and Taylor feels like her whole world has turned upside down. 

“You wanted to talk about Glee?” Angel asks, laughing after they say it. “Sorry, but. . .you know, _Glee_.” 

“I know. And yes, I did,” Taylor says, “but first I need to show you this really unfortunate video.” 

They sit down on the steps and Taylor pulls up the video that she showed Kendrick earlier. While they’re watching, another guy drops down to sit next to Angel, leaning in to watch the video, too. He makes a horrified noise in his throat in the middle, asking, “What the hell is happening here.” 

“Frank, this is Taylor,” Angel says, unable to tear their eyes away from the screen. “Taylor, Frank Ocean, our resident crooner.” 

“Hi!” Taylor says. “I’m sorry you have to see this.” 

“Oh, so you’re not watching this because you enjoy it,” Frank says. “Thank god.” 

“Mr. Scheuster is insistent about using this song for our lineup at Sectionals,” Taylor says, looking at Angel. “Could you. . .I don’t know, somehow make it not terrible? I’ve been listening to your mixtape online and I just trust you entirely now. With my whole life.” 

Angel laughs again. It’s a really nice sound. 

“What do you think?” they ask, glancing over at Frank. He makes a face. 

“If anybody can do it, you can,” he says. 

“Frank’s going to help, too,” Angel declares, and he sighs deeply but doesn’t fight it. Taylor suspects that people have a tendency to say yes to Angel. She’s just happy that apparently Angel’s willing to say yes to her, too. Taylor smiles at them both. 

“I’m _so excited _,” she says. “Can we start right now? I printed out the lyrics and annotated the worst parts, and I really think that you can make something that’s at least okay out of it, you know?”__

__Angel takes the paper that Taylor thrusts at them, wincing through the lyrics again._ _

__“I need you to know,” Angel says, “that I’m mostly agreeing to do this because you’re really cute.”_ _

__Taylor beams harder._ _

__“I’m fine with that!”_ _

__*_ _

__They don’t leave the school until the janitor finally kicks them out of the computer lab once it starts to get dark. Angel spent half the time scribbling over the lyrics and writing in the margins and the other half free-styling while Frank recorded and mixed everything. Originally, he was going to sing Mary Lambert’s part with some appropriate pronoun changes but then he pulled Taylor aside slyly and said, “Why don’t you sing instead?”_ _

__“Oh, but you’re so good,” Taylor says._ _

__Glancing over to make sure that Angel’s not paying attention, their ears covered with giant headphones, Frank sings, “ _They keep me warm_.” _ _

__Taylor smiles at him._ _

__“I just met them, you know,” she says._ _

__“Angel has a thing for willowy blondes,” Frank says._ _

__“I have a thing for talented people,” Taylor admits. “A really big thing.”_ _

__“Let’s see how your voice goes with the rest of the track,” he says, taking her arm and leading her to the computer._ _

__It turns out, their voices go pretty well together. When Taylor listens to the first cut, Angel’s lyrics pretty much completely different from the original, full of hurt and hope, she maybe cries. Okay, she definitely cries, but Angel does, too, and Frank coughs in a dignified way before excusing himself from the room._ _

__They upload the finished product to Soundcloud that same night, standing outside of the school while it finishes. Frank bows out with a promise to come to the next Glee Club meeting to see how it goes over, and Angel watches Taylor while she posts the link on Facebook and tags everybody she knows in it._ _

__“There,” Taylor says, tucking her phone back in her pocket before smiling down at Angel. “So, you’re definitely amazing. Will you actually come to Sectionals with us?”_ _

__“I don’t know, girl,” Angel says. “I’ve got a reputation to consider.”_ _

__“Could I persuade you?” Taylor asks, significantly. She means in a sexy way. She hopes that Angel knows that._ _

__“I think you could. . .definitely do that,” Angel replies, slowly, and they lean in a little, letting Taylor run a hand down their arm to circle a thin wrist. When they kiss, Taylor kind of feels something shift in her _soul_. _ _

__“I wanna make an _album_ with you,” she whispers, and Angel cackles. _ _

__“Let’s start with a song first, yeah?” they say, and Taylor nods, kissing them again and again and ignoring the insistent buzz of her phone in her pocket as the notifications start to roll in._ _


End file.
